Marching a Million Miles
by Essellay
Summary: There are all sorts of characters out there, from nice to nasty. Dungeons too, full of wild pokemon willing to knock out any traveler stupid enough to risk exploring their abode. On the other paw, sometimes you don't really have much of a choice except the scenic route. Still, when you've got someone else backing you up, it's not that bad. Loosely based on the PMD universe.


Uh, hello? Is this thing on? One, two, three, one two, three...

Alright, sounds fine when I play it back. I'll make the assumption that this thing's on.

Right, so, uh, this is gonna be the first of probably-many audio recordings. This is Sherry speaking right now, just in case you couldn't tell by voice.

_**~Sherry~**_

So if you're wondering how exactly we're able to recall everything in such great detail, it's because we found out that a few berries actually have some pretty neat properties and-

Hm? What? ...Aw crap. I shouldn't have mentioned that. Well, we can just nix this part out of the recording later, right? Right. So I can just keep going?

...Ixnay on the upid-stay? What does _that _mean? Aw, screw it. We can work out the details later.

So where to start?

...Yes, Vee. 'The beginning' is a pretty good place to start. _Thanks. _

So, the beginning. Well, for a lot of us, that can mean tons of things. But, I guess a decent place to start as any is when Vee and I first met.

Well, first things first. Who am I? Well, if you're listening to this, you should already know, since it's an autobiography and all. Not to mention, there should be a little intro to this recording. But let's get all the basic stuff out of the way anyway, just in case.

Name's Sherry. Female. Umbreon. You know what they normally look like, right? Yellow rings, red eyes, blah, blah.

Well, I'm not exactly 'normal' to say the least. Genetics (and God, apparently) had such a _wonderful, kind __heart_ to give me an alternate coloring. So, instead of yellow rings, I've got blue ones. In place of red eyes, I've got yellow. Might not seem like much, but let me tell you, I've had to deal with all sorts of crap, because of how different I looked...

_(There is a long pause in the recording.)_

Ahem. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, I was a drifter back then. You know, just traveling across the continent, surviving on whatever I could find in the wild, doing some odd-jobs in every town I visit to scrounge some money for a short stay, which usually lasted about a week before I decided to get back on the road. Had to keep moving, you know? Anyway...

* * *

So you see, I was staying in this one town for about a week longer than usual. It was one of those small cities that were originally plots of land bought in the Age of Commerce; you know the ones I'm thinking of right? They're those small trading cities you see spread out along a map? I think this one was named Budhime.

Anyway, I was making a great deal of money thanks to the missions that were on the Community Job Board there. You see, back then, Mystery Dungeons were beginning to pop back up, like someone just pressed some big button or angered a legendary or something, and lots of pokemon were getting their sorry asses lost in them, like a bunch of idiots.

_(A soft murmur from the background catches Sherry's attention. She mumbles an apology before addressing the speaker. The words 'potentially offensive' and 'politically correct' can be heard, but beyond that, it's impossible to make out what they're saying.)_

Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Look, if you want something that's "politically correct" then you can go ahead and ask someone else for info. I'm not exactly obligated to do this, you know. And it's techinically an autobiography for all of us, so I feel like I can say whatever I want, at least in my section.

Where was I? Oh right, Mystery Dungeons. So yeah, a lot more of them began to appear at that time, and the ones that were already there were getting much more dangerous. Pokemon were getting lost left and right; alongside that, lots more pokemon were going into the financially-successful line of work called organized crime, to the point where the law-enforcement agencies in many of the city-states were getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of criminals.

Fortunately, the world has a knack for finding a way to solve problems by itself, so a couple of the cities, especially the smaller ones where crime didn't have as much of a stranglehold, began posting all sorts of jobs on the large bulletin boards in the middle of the financial district, where most pokemon capable of handling the problem tend to be.

Some of the crime-fighting pokemon banded together in small groups, and eventually began styling themselves after the exploration and rescue teams of eld. However, they weren't exactly perfect, squeaky-clean heroes; many of them were incompetent and subsequently had to ask for help themselves. The few teams that could actually do their jobs tended to charge exorbitant prices for rescue or asked for twice the bounty on an outlaw's head.

Still, many pokemon tried to make the best of their situation, and many city-states began offering protection and safety from the outside world, usually at the cost of having to cut ties with anyone outside the city.

As for myself? I ran. After all, in my humble opinion, being in constant danger but having your freedom is a much better deal than having to sacrifice your freedom in exchange for safety. That's just me though.

_(Another long pause in the recording. When Sherry speaks again, one can practically hear her grimacing.)_

Augh. Wow, that spiel went _way_ longer than I wanted it to. Hell, at the end, it transformed into really bad exposition that probably doesn't fit here. Please tell me we're cutting that whole speech.

Oh, whatever. We were at...? Oh yeah, the Community Job Board. 'Kay, so, I was standing in front of the board for the fourth time that week. Every job I had completed that week were simple, but didn't exactly provide the best rewards. I was running out of money for food, and late Autumn isn't exactly the best time to pick berries, you know? I had to get a good sum of money, fast.

I looked all over the damn thing. Almost every job I found that could suit my needs was already taken, and I was thinking that I might have to stay at the place until Spring. Believe me, that was'nt an option I wanted to entertain.

Fortunately, Lady Luck was smiling down on me that day, because I was able to find one last mission, hidden away behind all of the others. It was an escort mission to the bottom of a mystery dungeon that was about a twenty minutes walk away. There wasn't any name on it, so I was pretty wary; it was widely known that a few criminals had the audacity to put up fake missions, and then ask for a few 'favors' before letting the hostages go.

On the other paw, I was really desperate at the time, and I didn't have much of a choice otherwise. I took the mission, followed the directions to the entrance of the dungeon, and when I got there, I saw that there was a small camp with a tent and a still-burning fire and everything.

"Um, hello? Is anyone here? I'm here for the mission. The one on the Job Board?" There wasn't an answer, so after about fifteen minutes of waiting in the chilly air, I decided to investigate.

I opened up the entrance of the tent, and looked inside. I didn't find the pokemon I was looking for, but I did find a couple cushions, a journal with a lock on it, and a few months worth of food.

Now, you have to understand, I'm not usually one to um, 'borrow' things from other pokemon. _But,_ I was close to starving at the time, and one thing lead to another, and I soon found myself about to gorge on a bright red apple I had found.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but, _what do you think you're doing?_" growls a voice behind me. The apple dropped right from my mouth, then and there. I swallowed, my eyes bigger than dinner plates.

"E-erm, I-ah, heheh..." I put on the best grin I possibly could, and turned around to see who had caught me.

That grin quickly fell into a small, fearful frown as I saw what I was up against: a muscled, monstrous, and worst of all, _ridiculously tall _Conkeldurr, with the sternest, stoniest face I had ever seen. I'm being dead serious about the tall part too; He was at least a foot taller than any other Conkeldurr I had seen, maybe a foot and a half.

"I repeat: _What do you think you're doing?_" The stern frown deepened.

"N-nothing, sir! I-I was just leaving." I gestured toward the tent's entrance. A large hand quickly blocked my way. I backed off.

As you can imagine, it wasn't looking very good for me. My only options at that point were to fight, which was suicide since he was bigger, probably stronger, and even had a type advantage over me, or to listen to whatever he had to say. Oh yeah, and pleading. Lots of pleading.

"P-please don't kill me." I said. "I'll do whatever you want! Just don't beat me into a pulp..." His stony, unintelligible face stared back at me. I looked back and swallowed, trying to decipher whatever it was he was thinking.

"Anything I say...?" It might have been an illusion, but I thought that his frown had lessened.

"Y-yeah. A-anything..." _Oh heavens above, please don't be thinking what I think you're_ _thinking..._

The Conkeldurr rubs his chin, and after coming to a conclusion, he says, "Sit down. Don't try to run. Believe me, I'm very good at catching any kind of pokemon, criminal or no."

I do as he says, repeating the same words in my head over and over. _Pleasedon'tbethinkingwhatIthinkyou'rethinking, pleasedon'tbethinkingwhatIthinkyou'rethinking..._

"I will be outside for a few moments. Again, don't try to run." I nod vigorously. He pushes open the tent, and I hear the loud clatter of pots and pans outside. After a few minutes, I can hear the sound of something simmering. A few minutes after _that_, he comes back, holding two mugs, one in each hand.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't find something that would be easier for quadruped like you to hold. I hope this is sufficent." He holds out one of the two mugs to me.

"Uh, yeah, that's fine." I mumble, taking the mug from him. I look at its contents; it's unlike any drink I had seen before. "What's in it?" I ask, thanks both to my legitimate curiousity and my wariness of anything he may have slipped into the drink.

"It's Aspear Tea. Try it." I take a small, cautious sip. My mouth is immediately filled with something that is sweet and sour, both in perfect amounts. Better yet, I could feel the warmth returning to my legs and paws. I smile, almost involuntarily, and promptly guzzle down more.

"Tastes good, doesn't it?"

I take the mug away from my mouth for a moment, wiping my mouth with my paw. "Yeah, this stuff tastes great! It feels as if all of the warmth I never knew I had is coming back to my body." I say thankfully.

He nods appreciatively. "That's good. Means it's doing its job. I generally tend to make tea to warm up after being outside in cold weather like this, the berry's natural antifreeze helps with both warming up and keeping myself warm."

I smile and nod, making a mental note to ask how this guy makes tea later.

The two of us quietly finish our respective drinks, myself guzzling it down with nary a care in the world. He takes several small, consecutive sips instead.

"Now then," says the Conkeldurr, wiping his mouth with his wrist. "I believe that you owe me an explanation."

I sip the last few drops from my drink, and put down the mug. "An explanation? For what?"

He sighs. "Don't tell me you've forgotten already," he deadpans. "I would like an explanation as to why exactly you're here at my campsite, and also why you were rifling through my cache of food."

"Oh." I chuckle sheepishly. "Well, for your first question, I think _this_ should explain things." I reach into my bag, pulling out the mission letter. He takes it from me, opening it up. "As for your second question, well, I haven't exactly been doing very well in the food department, myself." There's a short lull in the conversation as he quickly scans the piece of paper.

The Conkeldurr looks up from the piece of paper. "Well, I can confirm that this is the very same mission I had tacked on to the Board about three weeks ago. As a matter of fact, I was planning on taking it down tomorrow. Since you came here, am I correct in assuming that you are here as an escort?"

I grin. "Yep! Name's Sherry." I hold out a paw.

He cracks his first smile. "You can call me Vee, spelled V-E-E. Pleased to meet your acquaintance." He takes my paw into one of his massive hands, vigorously shaking it.

I could hear the bones in my paw breaking. "Ow..."I mumbled, cradling it.

"Sorry. Sometimes I don't know my own strength."

"'S okay. I doubt that anyone really knows their own strength." I decide to lean on my other paw a little more. "Anyway, if you're the one who put the mission on the board, aren't you going to tell me a little about yourself? You know, what you're exactly doing here, why you need my help, stuff like that."

"I suppose that's a good place to start. Well, you see, I've been traveling on my own for quite a while, searching old ruins, finding artifacts, following maps-a treasure hunter, if you will." I gesture for him to continue. "Well, I've been following this one lead for quite a while. Apparently, there's a valuable artifact hidden deep inside the cave you saw outside. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as simple as I had thought."

"Wait- let me guess. The cave actually turned out to be a mystery dungeon, right?" I ask, cutting in.

"Precisely, However, it goes deeper than that. That cave is filled to the brim with pokemon that I'm not exactly well-suited to fighting."

"Psychic Types?"

"Not quite..."

"Uh..." I racked my brain, trying to remember the typing chart my teachers had always yelled at me to memorize. "Fling types? Ghosts?"

"The latter. But not just any ghosts." His expression changed to one of annoyance.

"What are they? Frosslass with Sheer Cold? Cofagrigus with Pain Split?"

"Try Prankster-Sableye willing to spam Will-o-Wisp at me all day and then Recover off any damage I manage to actually do through the burns. Add to that an absolutely ridiculous number of Gengar who attack me from inside the damn walls and then Grudge me out of all of my PP if I actually manage to knock them out. It's perhaps the most annoying dungeon I have ever had the pleasure of facing, and I haven't even been two floors past the Waypoint yet."

"A Waypoint?" I ask. "I actually haven't been to a dungeon that's long enough to have one. How long of a dungeon are we talking here?"

"Some twenty-something floors before the Waypoint, and at least two after that. I'm sorry that I don't actually have the exact numbers."

"Nah, it's fine." I shrug. "If I were you I wouldn't be paying much attention to the number of floors either. Sounds rough." I say sympathetically.

"Believe me, it was. I had to spend almost all of my Escape Orbs simply so I wouldn't lose half of my stuff."

"Hmm... Well, I'm pretty sure it's your lucky day. I can help you out, and with my plethora of skills, I can handle most of your weaknesses."

"Really?" He asked, a skeptical eyebrow raised. "Do tell me how exactly one pokemon can help cover all of my weaknesses?"

"You said you had a problem with status, right? Now considering your species, I'm guessing that you were blessed with the ability Iron Fist, so you get reduced attack from burns. To remedy both your status and health problems, I have the moves Wish and Heal Bell in my moveset. Alongside that, I've got an IQ skill that lets me attack pokemon through walls as long as the move is super-effective, relieving you of having to deal with ghosts attacking you from where you can't reach, like a bunch of cowards."

"Hm. Well, you certainly have my interest piqued. Mind if I ask you what your entire moveset is?"

"Wish, Heal Bell, Foul Play, Baton Pass." Vee gives me a strange look as I finish my list. "What?" I ask defensively. "Sometimes running away from your problems is a lot easier than facing them. Baton Pass helps with that." He snorts derisively.

"Well, excepting your last moveslot, it certainly does appear that you are very well suited to helping me out, as long as you're telling me the truth."

"Of course I'm telling you the truth." I say, a little offended. "Why would I lie to you now, of all times? Not to mention that making the assumption that I'm lying is kind of typist..."

He quickly goes back on his words and apologizes, saying that that was certainly not his intention to make that implication. He also tells me his own moveset: Mach Punch, Drain Punch, Stone Edge, and Focus Punch.

To say the least, I could see why he was having trouble taking down a couple of Ghost Types now.

"The fact that you constantly tried to finish a dugeon where three fourths of your moveset is ineffective is a little stupid, to be honest. Why didn't you give up?"

"It's a matter of personal pride," he explained. "Besides, I've easily been breezing through most of the dungeons I've come across before this one. I didn't bring enough supplies because I thought this dungeon would also be fairly simple to complete."

A soft _snrrk _sound escapes my mouth. Don't judge me, his story was pretty dumb, considering the fact that he probably would've finished the dungeon if his high opinion of himself had gotten in the way. Not to mention the schadenfreude factor: it's usually easier to laugh at pain that's not your own.

"Wait, wait. Let me get this straight: because you thought that this dungeon would be just as easy as all of the other ones, you decided not to take all of your supplies with you. After using up a significant amout of your supplies your first time through, you didn't have enough to finish every other time after that, but you continued to try due to a personal need to 'conserve your honor'. Am I right so far?" I say, letting some snickers out of my system.

"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was to 'conserve my honor' as you say, but yes."

"Just so you know, I find that simultaneously pathetic and slightly respectable." I say. "Still mostly pathetic, though. Anyway, is there anything else I need to know about this dungeon?

There's a short pause as Vee thinks for a second, his brow scrunched in concentration. "No," he finally says, "I _believe_ that's all..."

"Cool. Let's get going then. No time like the present, right?" I say, breaking him out of his reverie. I get up to climb out of the tent.

"I'm not too sure that that's the best idea. It's already getting dark outside. I propose that we rest until morning."

"Is it?"I ask with a frown. "I thought it was only seven o'clock, or something." I take a peek outside, seeing that he's right. The sun was practically already below the horizon. Only a small band of red and orange was left; the rest of the sky was made of varying shades of blue and purple. "Oh well, blame Autumn I guess." I sigh. I turn back to Vee. "Well, if we're going to be sleeping on it, where do you propose I sleep? You're not going to kick me out of the tent, are you? I don't think I have enough money for another stay at the hotel." I quickly pull out my 'please-pity-me' face.

"I was thinking of allowing you to stay in the tent, yes." My face perks up. "I only have one tent though, so I'm afraid that we'll have to share." Back to slumping.

"But won't it be a tight fit?" I ask, trying to persuade him into sleeping outside of the tent.

"That shouldn't be a problem. After all, we spent an hour or so sitting up inside the tent discussing things, so I'm certain it can hold us if we're curled up and lying down. That, and you're about, what, two foot three?" He studies me for a second. "Actually, now that I take a second look, you're actually fairly short in comparison to the rest of your species..."

"..." I fail to keep both my face and my mood from souring. He doesn't seem to notice.

...Okay, I admit, I am short. His first estimation was pretty off. I only stand about two feet, and yes, I realize that that's over a foot shorter than just about any other Umbreon, or hell, any pokemon of the eevee evolutionary line besides another eevee. Didn't mean he had to point it out, though.

"Erm, is something wrong?" He asks.

"You didn't exactly _have_ to point out that I'm short." I huff back, my face in a full blown scowl. Suddenly, something seems to click for him, and when he opens up his mouth again, I get a really strange need to smack him somewhere that would cause him some _very_ intense pain.

"_Ahh, _you're one of _those _pokemon."

"Do explain." I say with an ever-deepening frown.

"You don't need to take offense when someone comments on how you look. After all, it's simply how you were born. Instead, you should embrace it! I'm sure it'll make you feel much better." He smiles.

"...What are you, my psychologist?" I growl incredulously. "That is probably the stupidest idea I have ever heard. I've heard some pretty stupid shit in my eighteen years of life, but _that_ has to take the cake." Vee shrugs noncommittally.

"Hey, don't say I didn't try to help."

"You call that help? If anything, it's some advice that was outdated the first time it was ever given."

"If you say so. I would say it's helped me a few times. In any case," he says, as if that line of thought had never been followed, "I believe we were talking about tent space? I'm certain that I said there was enough spac in here for the two of us, so that takes care of that. As for tyhe subject of beds and cushions and what not, I should have at least one more pillow in the back, so-"

"Hey, hey, wait. Back up," I cut him off. "We can't just go from the topic of me being short right back to discussing sleeping arrangements. I'm pretty sure that's not how conversations work."

"Then you're saying you _would _like some advice? Because I can certainly provide you with some."

"Wha- no! I never said that-"

"Then, I believe that that's a conversational path that holds nothing useful for either you or me. Continuing to explore it would only end with awkwardness, and considering the fact that I'd like to keep our current relationship as business-only, I would prefer not to dwell on such unnecessary topics." He proceeds to explain to me just how much he values the time he spends in a conversation, and his beliefs that every second spent talking is probably better spent and blah, blah, blah. I was starting to get tired of just how much this guy could talk. My poor ears could barely stand the avalanche of words that poured from his mouth. He could probably run for mayor of a city-state somewhere, and win simply because everyone wanted him to shut up.

"I, uh, okay?" I stammer out when he finally shuts his mouth. I shake my head. "You know what? Forget it. Let's talk beds." I sigh. If this guy could talk about sleeping arrangements for half as long as he could probably talk about conversations themselves, then I have a feeling it's going to be a long night.

* * *

Just as I suspected, it took about an hour for the two of us to agree on sleeping arrangements. I tuned him out about a quarter through, I think. I came to when he started asking if I was okay with everything. At that point, I decided to agree with whatever he said, just so I could get to sleep.

When he had brought in a few extra pillows and cushions for me to use, I kind of just chucked them into a small pile in the corner and buried myself in it. It was soft and insulated, which was about everything I could have asked for at the moment.

Vee went outside to put out the campfire. As for myself, I drifted off into dreamland, with my last few thoughts being on how this whole job was going to turn out. After all, it's not everyday someone decides to give you some food and drinks even after you tried to steal their stuff. Not to mention, I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was thrusting myself into something a lot bigger than I thought.

_Eh. There's no point in worrying about it right now. I have a full belly and a warm cushion-bed to sleep in. I can't complain._

_Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Vee seems nice enough. _I think, settling into my cushin fortress.

Little did I know that I was completely right about the bigger-than-I-thought thing.

* * *

So, how'd you all like it? Do note that this is my first time writing something like this, so try to go easy on me. Thanks!


End file.
